Are Investments in Daughters Lower When Daughters Move Away?

In much of the developing world daughters receive lower education and other investments than do their brothers, and may even be so devalued as to suffer differential mortality. Daughter disadvantage may be due in part to social norms that prescribe that daughters move away from their natal family upon marriage, a practice known as virilocality. We evaluate the effects of virilocality on female disadvantage using data from the Indonesia Family Life Survey. We find little support for the hypothesis. There is no evidence that the overall pattern of rough equality in the treatment of boys and girls in Indonesia masks differences according to post-marital residential practice. Virilocal groups do not have "missing daughters." Nor is there other evidence of son preference, such as in relatively low height for- age or education for girls and women in virilocal areas. Explanations of daughter disadvantage as due to virilocality should be subject to further scrutiny and contextualization.

Are Investments in Daughters Lower When Daughters Move Away? Evidence from Indonesia

In much of the developing world daughters receive lower education and other investments than do their brothers, and may even be so devalued as to suffer differential mortality. Daughter disadvantage may be due in part to social norms that prescribe that daughters move away from their natal family upon marriage, a practice known as virilocality. We evaluate the effects of virilocality on female disadvantage using data from the Indonesia Family Life Survey. We find little support for the hypothesis. There is no evidence that the overall pattern of rough equality in the treatment of boys and girls in Indonesia masks differences according to post-marital residential practice. Virilocal groups do not have missing daughters. Nor is there other evidence of son preference, such as in relatively low height-for-age or education for girls and women in virilocal areas. Explanations of daughter disadvantage as due to virilocality should be subject to further scrutiny and contextualizatio

miRTRAP, a computational method for the systematic identification of miRNAs from high throughput sequencing data

A novel method for prediction of miRs from deep sequencing data. Its utility is demonstrated when applied to Ciona data

Improving Regulatory Effectiveness through Better Targeting: Evidence from OSHA

We study how a regulator can best allocate its limited inspection resources. We direct our analysis to a US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) inspection program that targeted dangerous establishments and allocated some inspections via random assignment. We find that inspections reduced serious injuries by an average of 9% over the following five years. We use new machine learning methods to estimate the effects of counterfactual targeting rules OSHA could have deployed. OSHA could have averted over twice as many injuries if its inspections had targeted the establishments where we predict inspections would avert the most injuries. The agency could have averted nearly as many additional injuries by targeting the establishments predicted to have the most injuries. Both of these targeting regimes would have generated over $1 billion in social value over the decade we examine. Our results demonstrate the promise, and limitations, of using machine learning to improve resource allocation. JEL Classifications: I18; L51; J38; J

Phases of Imitation and Innovation in a North-South Endogenous Growth Model

In this paper, we develop a North-South endogenous growth model to examine three phases of development in the South: imitation of Northern products, imitation and innovation and finally, innovation only. In particular, the model has the features of catching up (and potentially overtaking) which are of particular relevance to the Pacific Rim economies. We show that the possible equilibria depend on cross-country assimilation effects and the ease of imitation. We then apply the model to analyse the impact of R&D subsidies. There are some clear global policy implications which emerge from our analysis. Firstly, because subsidies to Southern innovation benefit the North as well, it is beneficial to the North to pay for some of these subsidies. Secondly, because the ability of the South to assimilate Northern knowledge and innovate depends on Southern skills levels, the consequent spillover benefits on growth make the subsidising of Southern education by the North particularly attractive.

Transits and Occultations of an Earth-Sized Planet in an 8.5-Hour Orbit

We report the discovery of an Earth-sized planet ($1.16\pm 0.19 R_\oplus$) in an 8.5-hour orbit around a late G-type star (KIC 8435766, Kepler-78). The object was identified in a search for short-period planets in the {\it Kepler} database and confirmed to be a transiting planet (as opposed to an eclipsing stellar system) through the absence of ellipsoidal light variations or substantial radial-velocity variations. The unusually short orbital period and the relative brightness of the host star ($m_{\rm Kep}$ = 11.5) enable robust detections of the changing illumination of the visible hemisphere of the planet, as well as the occultations of the planet by the star. We interpret these signals as representing a combination of reflected and reprocessed light, with the highest planet dayside temperature in the range of 2300 K to 3100 K. Follow-up spectroscopy combined with finer sampling photometric observations will further pin down the system parameters and may even yield the mass of the planet.Comment: Accepted for publication, ApJ, 10 pages and 6 figure

Dopamine D 4 Receptor-Deficient Mice Display Cortical Hyperexcitability

The dopamine D(4) receptor (D(4)R) is predominantly expressed in the frontal cortex (FC), a brain region that receives dense input from midbrain dopamine (DA) neurons and is associated with cognitive and emotional processes. However, the physiological significance of this dopamine receptor subtype has been difficult to explore because of the slow development of D(4)R agonists and antagonists the selectivity and efficacy of which have been rigorously demonstrated in vivo. We have attempted to overcome this limitation by taking a multidimensional approach to the characterization of mice completely deficient in this receptor subtype. Electrophysiological current and voltage-clamp recordings were performed in cortical pyramidal neurons from wild-type and D(4)R-deficient mice. The frequency of spontaneous synaptic activity and the frequency and duration of paroxysmal discharges induced by epileptogenic agents were increased in mutant mice. Enhanced synaptic activity was also observed in brain slices of wild-type mice incubated in the presence of the selective D(4)R antagonist PNU-101387G. Consistent with greater electrophysiological activity, nerve terminal glutamate density associated with asymmetrical synaptic contacts within layer VI of the motor cortex was reduced in mutant neurons. Taken together, these results suggest that the D(4)R can function as an inhibitory modulator of glutamate activity in the FC.Fil: Rubinstein, Marcelo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Investigaciones en Ingeniería Genética y Biología Molecular "Dr. Héctor N. Torres"; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales; ArgentinaFil: Cepeda, Carlos. University of California at Los Angeles; Estados UnidosFil: Hurst, Raymond S.. University of California at Los Angeles; Estados UnidosFil: Flores Hernandez, Jorge. University of California at Los Angeles; Estados UnidosFil: Ariano, Marjorie A.. The Chicago Medical School; Estados UnidosFil: Falzone, Tomas Luis. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Investigaciones en Ingeniería Genética y Biología Molecular "Dr. Héctor N. Torres"; ArgentinaFil: Kozell, Laura B.. Oregon Health Sciences University; Estados UnidosFil: Meshul, Charles K.. Oregon Health Sciences University; Estados UnidosFil: Bunzow, James R.. Oregon Health Sciences University; Estados UnidosFil: Low, Malcolm J.. Oregon Health Sciences University; Estados UnidosFil: Levine, Michael S.. University of California at Los Angeles; Estados UnidosFil: Grandy, David K.. Oregon Health Sciences University; Estados Unido

Identifying mRNA targets of microRNA dysregulated in cancer: with application to clear cell Renal Cell Carcinoma

BACKGROUND. MicroRNA regulate mRNA levels in a tissue specific way, either by inducing degradation of the transcript or by inhibiting translation or transcription. Putative mRNA targets of microRNA identified from seed sequence matches are available in many databases. However, such matches have a high false positive rate and cannot identify tissue specificity of regulation. RESULTS. We describe a simple method to identify direct mRNA targets of microRNA dysregulated in cancers from expression level measurements in patient matched tumor/normal samples. The word "direct" is used here in a strict sense to: a) represent mRNA which have an exact seed sequence match to the microRNA in their 3'UTR, b) the seed sequence match is strictly conserved across mouse, human, rat and dog genomes, c) the mRNA and microRNA expression levels can distinguish tumor from normal with high significance and d) the microRNA/mRNA expression levels are strongly and significantly anti-correlated in tumor and/or normal samples. We apply and validate the method using clear cell Renal Cell Carcinoma (ccRCC) and matched normal kidney samples, limiting our analysis to mRNA targets which undergo degradation of the mRNA transcript because of a perfect seed sequence match. Dysregulated microRNA and mRNA are first identified by comparing their expression levels in tumor vs normal samples. Putative dysregulated microRNA/mRNA pairs are identified from these using seed sequence matches, requiring that the seed sequence be conserved in human/dog/rat/mouse genomes. These are further pruned by requiring a strong anti-correlation signature in tumor and/or normal samples. The method revealed many new regulations in ccRCC. For instance, loss of miR-149, miR-200c and mir-141 causes gain of function of oncogenes (KCNMA1, LOX), VEGFA and SEMA6A respectively and increased levels of miR-142-3p, miR-185, mir-34a, miR-224, miR-21 cause loss of function of tumor suppressors LRRC2, PTPN13, SFRP1, ERBB4, and (SLC12A1, TCF21) respectively. We also found strong anti-correlation between VEGFA and the miR-200 family of microRNA: miR-200a*, 200b, 200c and miR-141. Several identified microRNA/mRNA pairs were validated on an independent set of matched ccRCC/normal samples. The regulation of SEMA6A by miR-141 was verified by a transfection assay. CONCLUSIONS. We describe a simple and reliable method to identify direct gene targets of microRNA in any cancer. The constraints we impose (strong dysregulation signature for microRNA and mRNA levels between tumor/normal samples, evolutionary conservation of seed sequence and strong anti-correlation of expression levels) remove spurious matches and identify a subset of robust, tissue specific, functional mRNA targets of dysregulated microRNA.Cancer Institute of New Jersy; New Jersey Commission for Cacner Research; Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center Tissue Procurement and Genomics Core Facility; Crawford Fun